Hisham’s reminiscing has prompted me to finally take action – all this summer I have been procrastinating making some family related entries. Vin’s family had several family-related occasions and I have been meaning to blog them. Rather than doing them in chronological order, I am going to organize it a little differently. In early August, Vin and I traveled to Maryland first to Bel Aire to visit with Aunt Joan and Uncle John, then to Crisfield to visit with Aunt Dolores and Uncle Dean. Our visit with Aunt Joan and Uncle John was short and amounted to a quick lunch with them, but stay tuned, there will be more on them in upcoming entries. In Crisfield, Dean took Vin and I fishing. For the second year in a row, I went fishing with Dean and Vin, and guess what? For the second year in a row, the girl beat the […]
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Irfan Goes To Opah Cu’s House
Earlier this year, when we were in Sitiawan we went Irfan’s Opah Cu’s house in Ipoh, the capital of Perak. As usual, upon arriving at a brand new location for him, Irfan took a dump in his diapers. (That never fails, by the way.) Besides that, he had a lot of fun with his great aunt, his aunt and two uncles. Perhaps this Aidilfitri he’ll find some time to return there. Hopefully, since it’s not his first time already, he wont crap in his diapers for the visit. [[image:ipoh01.jpg:Opah Cu’s sliding door:center:0]]A large yard! Much better than the no yard at his own house. [[image:ipoh02.jpg:Opah Cu’s yard:center:0]]Pak Cu trying to get close to Irfan, who’s still shy at this time. [[image:ipoh03.jpg:Opah Cu’s bathtub:center:0]]After finding out his steaming pile, we decided to give him a bath. [[image:ipoh04.jpg:Opah Cu’s bedroom:center:0]]As Cik Emma puts on his clothes, Irfan is unable to contain his […]
Continue readingIrfan Goes To The Zoo
Last Sunday, Irfan (along with a bunch of family members) went to the zoo! Here’s a series of photos that came out of our little zoo trip. [[image:zoo01.jpg:Immediately after insertion into zoo:center:0]]The crew lead by Irfan walks by the elephant paddock, away from it because he was spooked by the big pachyderms. [[image:zoo02.jpg:Stork lake:center:0]]Irfan and his Aunt Emma with some storks in the background. There’s one bird in flight in the background immediately behind them if you look carefully. [[image:zoo03.jpg:Pony ride:center:0]]Again, Irfan is spooked and refuses to approach a pony, RM2.00 a pop. He preferred to be elsewhere, like… [[image:zoo04.jpg:The jejawi tree:center:0]]…this ficus microcarpa a.k.a. the Malay Banyan a.k.a the jejawi tree. Oh hey, another group photo. [[image:zoo05.jpg:Emus:center:0]]Everyone referred to these as ostriches until we came to the plaque that says that they were emus. The ostriches, we discovered later, were in the the savanna open paddock along with the […]
Continue readingMak & Abah at Dungun, Terengganu
Here we are over 100 posts in this blog and not once did even say that I worked for seven years at the East Coast of the Peninsular Malaysia. I hate talking about the place. No, I don’t mean Terengganu is an awful place. Far from it. It has some of the most beautiful beaches in the country. The people there are for the most part cordial and pleasant to be around with. A lot of unpleasantness stained in my mind came from the work. Politics at the workplace, mostly stemming from people from the West Coast. I could go on, but I’ll just sum things up: great place to be, wonderful friends there (and still there), terrible job. So here are some pictures of Mak & Abah visiting me while I was there. [[image:dungun1.jpg:Near ITM Dungun:center:0]] [[image:dungun2.jpg:Abah and Mak at Tanjung Jara:center:0]] [[image:dungun3.jpg:Geological analysis of Tanjung Jara:center:0]] [[image:dungun4.jpg:The southern […]
Continue readingA Fantastic Tale of Old
I realise that since this blog went online, there hasn’t been any entry that features some sort of fantastic anecdote that happens to me during the day. Like being at the zoo and a herd of rampaging rhinos escape their pen, or my needing to jump from one rooftop to an adjacent rooftop to save my life, or a meteorite that crashes and irradiates me, ultimately endowing me with super powers… One of the reasons is because I’m working full-time to get my e-book website online, I don’t go outdoors as I much as I used to anymore. The good old days were when I was working 5 days on, 5 days off in Terengganu on the east coast. 5 days off time and being aimless gave me a lot of opportunities to get into adventures. And when I worked in marketing at the advertising company in 2000, I was […]
Continue readingIrfan’s Aunt Emma’s Graduation
As was reported in an earlier post, we were all at Universiti Malaya for Emma’s graduation ceremory. Irfan’s grandparents along with assorted uncles and aunts were there for the occasion. They spent the night at Rumah Universiti, booked many weeks earlier to avoid being sold out. I was worried of the day being ruined by thick, smothering haze that’d been plaguing us for the previous two weeks. But like a miracle, the air cleared. Not a bit, not even moderately… it cleared almost totally. So we had blue skies and could clearly around us during graduation day. [[popup:um01.jpg:(thumbnail):Coming down Rumah Universiti:center:1]] After eating lunch in the hotel room, we headed down toward the crowd surrounding the Dewan Tunku Canselor. Irfan was curious about the drains as usual. Because the the crowd hasn’t surged yet, I was on photography detail. Later, to ensure Irfan’s safety, I had to take him in […]
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More Like His Old Man By The Day
There were thousands of humans swarming the area before the Dewan Tunku Canseler in Universiti Malaya today. I swear if I didn’t know there were individual consciousness behind the motile meatbags I’d say they were subject to nothing more than Brownian Motion. And so it came to pass that it was Ain’s sister Emma’s graduation convocation today at UM, or commencement, as some of you might call it. Ain, Irfan and I were at the Dataran Canseleri during the afternoon waiting for Emma and my in-laws to be let out of the Dewan Tunku Canseler, the university’s main hall, so we could take pictures, just like the several hundred or so other families that were there today. At this point, the number of people swarming the area was phenomenal. Also because of that the noise level of the crowd was ear splitting. Irfan was running around, weaving in and out […]
Continue readingBaseball Anyone?
What could be more American than baseball and apple pie? Why would a Malaysian girl even give a hoot? Because baseball is Vin’s obsession. (He likes apple pie too, and blasphemously, I don’t, but that’s a different story altogether). During the spring and summer months Vin eats, drinks, lives, and breathes baseball. During the off-season, he keeps track of the trades and developments in the Major Leagues. We started dating in August of 2000, and by the fall of 2001 (the first full baseball season, spring-summer of 2001), I could read a box score. And Vin and I had a long-distance relationship. Many baseball widows would probably reprimand me for encouraging this obsession but (un)fortunately for me, baseball means more than just something Vin is unnaturally fixated on. We met at a baseball game. What? What was I, the least-interested-worst-possible-athletic person in the world doing at a baseball game? Yes, […]
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Excursion to KLCC
Today we went to KLCC for a picnic. Irfan, as usual, went straight for the extensive playground they have there, running up and sliding down the play structures. Later, I got to do what I haven’t done in a long time: spend an hour at Kinokuniya browsing and reading the first few chapters of several books, including Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash. Even read through the Marvel Spider-Man Encyclopedia. As usual I took a some photos, and here are some views of Irfan playing outside, and some view inside Suria KLCC. Inside Suria KLCC Mall
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Honeymoon in Redang
As Hisham has faithfully chronicled in here, Vin & I got married in Malaysia recently. A few days after the big kenduri (feast) in Sitiawan, Hisham’s and my hometown, Vin & I flew to Kuala Terengganu, on the east coast of Peninsula Malaysia where we were picked up by a bus and driven to the Marang Jetty. There, we got on a speedboat and left for Pulau Redang (Redang Island) for a 3-day snorkeling adventure. My father had taken us on a few of these vacations when Hisham and I were in our late teens, but the last time I had been to Pulau Redang and its neighboring islands had been at least 10 years ago. I had been worried that the last 10 years might have brought “development” (and its evil twin destruction) and that tourism might have brought about the destruction of the natural coral reefs that surround […]
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KLIA June 2005
Their time in Malaysia had come and gone. Vin and Sila left the country, back to their own lives in the United States last night. It had been a fantastic month, and we were all saddened by their having to leave. Irfan, on the other hand, took it well. Even after the evening claiming his Ayah Cik’s luggage as his own, Irfan waved his goodbye to my sister and brother-in-law without any fuss. Even this morning, when I asked him, “Ayak Cik mana? (Where’s Ayah Cik?)” Irfan cheerily replied, “Ayah Cik naik kapal terbang. (Ayah Cik got onto an aircraft.)” Here are pictures from last night sad event. Here are some general pictures of the Kuala Lumpur International Airport taken without flash and with long exposure.
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A Stay At The Hilton: Another Photojournal
For the last year or so, after sending Irfan to day care, we drive to work together. After the construction of Hilton KL Sentral, we drive past it every morning. Sometimes we wonder if we would ever get a chance to spend a night at the newest and state-of-the-art hotel in Kuala Lumpur. Then suddenly last week, newly-weds Sila and Vin booked us on what would be a 2 night stay there. After their honeymoon in Redang we were to rendezvous with them at KL Sentral. Soon after, we were enjoying the air-conditioned, luxurious rooms of the hotel. Here are pictures from our awesome stay at the Hilton. Here we are settling down into the hotel room. Irfan warmed up to the bathtub immediately. He had to have his Ayah Cik Vin around for him to fill up the tub with tepid water, before he takes a dip in it […]
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Prelude To A Wedding, Part 1
The last seven days have been a great experience. Sila and Vin were in Kuala Lumpur manoeuvring through some red tape and purchasing wedding items. Both were of course ably aided by Irfan, his Aunt Emma, Ain and I. We were like a squad of soldiers moving through military manoeuvres timing each other, splitting up at some points to cover more ground. Thus we were kept busy and on our toes at all times. Irfan helped too? Well, he’s mostly in the entertainment department, cracking us up with his antics, including Vin. We tried to teach him to call him Ayah Cik to no avail for quite a few days. But he did like to lie down beside him with his balloon, and spend some time in the pool with him. Meeting Darth Vader Saturday afternoon the whole bunch of us, excluding Sila went to MPH Mid Valley Megamall. We […]
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KLIA May 2005
11.15 pm was Sila and Vin’s arrival time at KLIA from Cincinnati, by way of LA and Incheon. We went with two cars, because Sila’s message was quite explicit: “Need empty car boots, we got lots of bags”… or something to that effect. Here are the pictures of the KLIA excursion, which was a fun excursion. Heading back home, all the cars experienced various technical problems… at about 1.00 am. My car tyre’s sidewall bulged threatening us with a flat in the middle of nowhere, Abah’s car’s radiator red-lined and driver’s door window got stuck in the down position…. Those weren’t fun.
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Ain’s Graduation Aug 2003
In August 2003, a thousand families flocked to Universiti Malaya to see a family member graduate. Ours were there to see Ain graduate (with a 11-month old Irfan in tow), finally getting her bachelor’s degree in Economics. What I didn’t know was graduation events can have some pretty exciting moments too. Like the time the university guards blocked the road to let the graduates travel from their staging ground at the Bangunan Peperiksaan to the where they were supposed to receive their scroll at Dewan Tunku Canselor. Out of the dozens of vehicles blocked, a single biker tried to run the blockade, right before the thousands of people there. So the guards grabbed hold of the perpetrator and pulled him right off his bike as he passed them. Other guards dragged his bike. They forcibly returned him to where he was with the rest of the waiting bikes and cars. […]
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Irfan the Water Baby
At two and a half years old, Irfan has absolutely no fear of water. Unbidden, he will kick off his shoes, run to the edge of the pool, do a little sing and dance routine (seriously) and jump right into the deep end with a big splash. Recently he started using a child’s life preserver, a full body jacket now, not the small arm band things you see him wearing here, which sprung a leak last month. Every weekend he goes nuts whenever he learns that we’re going to air lompat, which is his term for the swimming pool. I guess I’m quite grateful for his lack of fear for water. It would be quite easy for him to learn to swim later on. Here are more pictures of Irfan the paddler from way back in January 2005. Click on the images to expand them.
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